Chapter 1941: Cultural Collision (Part Two)

Ragna bit back tears as she knelt at Erling’s side. As a lady, she knew how to hide her pain and fears behind the mask of a ruler, and as a mother, she knew when to be strong for her son. Falling to pieces at his side wouldn’t do any good now.

But while breaking down and crying wouldn’t help, she didn’t know what would.

Heila, Empress Ashlynn’s horned lady-in-waiting, was working rapidly, cutting away at Erling’s clothing, exposing the mass of bruises across his torso. Some spots were darker than others, but the edges of one bruise overlapped with another enough that it seemed like half his torso was one big bruise running from his left hip to his right shoulder.

His breath produced thin, wispy clouds in the cold, winter air, and he shivered at the chill of losing his tunic. When Heila touched his bruises with whatever medicinal paste she’d smeared on her fingers, however, Erling didn’t flinch. He didn’t groan. He lay there like a dying man at the edge of death’s door, too far gone to notice the pain of his own body.

"Is he... Is he going to survive?" Ragna forced herself to ask.

"We won’t let him die," Heila said, doing her best to keep her voice light despite the obvious worry on her face. "If you want to help, support his head and shoulders. Gently," she emphasized. "I have a potion that will help to speed the healing of his wounds but he’s drawn too deeply to rouse easily. His wounds only make it worse."

"Drawn too deeply?" Ragna said, frowning at Heila’s answer.

"Sorcery, using the body’s own strength," Heila said. "He learned from Milo and Ollie. Even if he hadn’t been injured, he’d probably have collapsed at the end of the race. I doubt he did any permanent damage, but he shouldn’t get out of bed or exert himself for at least a week or two after this. Maybe more."

"Is that why you’re using pastes and potions on him instead of, um," Ragna paused, uncertain about what the right word was. "When the Church heals a man who’s this badly wounded, there are prayers, and they perform a miracle..."

"Church ’miracles’ are just nothing more than sorcery wearing a fancy dress," Heila snorted. "Real miracles are happening behind you," she said, nodding her head toward Khorijin. "Your son’s opponent is more worried about him than herself right now. She just offered to marry him and care for him if he’s cripled from this."

"To me, that’s a greater miracle than summoning power and binding it with desire," Heila said without pausing her work.

"She... what?" Ragna said, turning to look at the equine woman who still managed to look elegant despite her own bloody wounds. Or perhaps that was just a factor of her height and posture, but still...

After doing this, all of this to her son, did she think she could claim him as a prize? Did she want Erling to stud for her?

It was a dark thought, and one Ragna quickly tossed aside. Heila had said that she offered to marry him to care for him if he was crippled. That hardly sounded like she intended to force Erling. But... Why would marriage come up at all?

"Lady Ragna," Khorijin said, bowing her head low when she saw Erling’s mother glaring in her direction. "This is my fault," she said, speaking slowly in the king’s common tongue. "Erling offered friendship. In there, he offered help," she said, gesturing to the wounds that Ashlynn had treated with a combination of her emerald, soothing energy and similar medicinal pastes to the ones Heila used.

"I refused," Khorijin said. "I reject. Force him to risk all. This," she said, gesturing to Erling’s wounds. "This my fault. And his," she added when she saw Ragna’s expression getting even darker. "I’m responsible. He has no wife to care for him, so I will care for him. I will marry him if no woman will have him," she said, sounding strangely determined to everyone watching.

"Khorijin, you don’t have to do this," Ashlynn said lightly in the Eldritch tongue. "This isn’t our way. Heila and I will care for him. We just need to ease his pain and infuse his body with strength before we heal him. His recovery may take time, but you need to recover as well," she reminded the young hunter.

"You don’t feel it now, because of my ointments," Ashlynn reminded Khorijin. "But your wounds need time to heal too, and you need to recover your strength the same as he does."

"I appreciate your offer to care for him," Ragna added. "But you do not need to marry him in order to care for him. You may visit. If you are well, you may help him, but only if he accepts your presence. Until he wakes, I won’t have someone who all but killed him at his side," she said firmly.

"You understand, don’t you?" Ragna said. "You were enemies in there. I cannot accept this change of heart so easily. Wait until he wakes. At that point, you can speak to him about caring for him or befriending him. But you shouldn’t talk about marrying someone you neither know nor like. Even if there isn’t great love between you, there should at least be affection and..."

"There is affection," Khorijin said abruptly. Her cheeks heated slightly, and she rushed to explain before she was misunderstood. "There is admiration. His kindness. His courage. His honor and respect."

"And there is destiny," she added, feeling increasingly uncertain about the signs she’d seen. "The stars led me to him. Led me easily. The stars showed me life without him. Life that’s empty and sad. We have destiny," she repeated.

"What you have is an injured man," Heila reminded everyone as she finished pouring a potion down Erling’s throat. Color started to return to his cheeks, and his breathing grew stronger, but he still lay motionless with only his tattered cloak to keep him off the cold, hard ground.

"If you want to help, then help me carry him away from here, where I can heal him," she said, resting her hands on her hips as she looked from Khorijin to Liam. "Fetch a stretcher and tell Emma I need her help. Lady Ragna can stay, but once we’ve taken him somewhere private and warm, Khorijin, you need to go."

"Do you need my help, Heila?" Ashlynn asked. "His wounds..."

"Only the wounds to his arm and thigh are serious," Heila said, shaking her head. "The drain of too much sorcery for someone who only started learning is the greater problem. That will need time, rest, and a good many large meals," she said, giving Ashlynn a playful look. "We could take him back to the Vale for Georg to tend to, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing."

"In that case, I’ll leave him in your care," Ashlynn said. "Khorijin, you should speak with Dirar after this. Have Liam take you to Virve as well. Your wounds should be within her ability to heal now that we’ve blunted the worst of it," she said.

"Yes, Your Dominion," Khorijin said, clearly reluctant to leave Erling’s side before he woke. She understood, however, that Lady Ragna was very protective of her son, and she wasn’t wrong to keep an enemy away... It was just that Khorijin never thought of herself as Erling’s ’enemy.’ They were opponents, yes, but there was no grudge between them.

To an outsider like Ragna, though, perhaps the distinction wasn’t so clear.

"Now, Lord Reynold," Ashynn said, turning to face the young lord from Aleese. "Have you decided who will fight next in this challenge? Since Khorijin had to carry Erling back, even though he returned with the scarf alongside her, I’ve declared this her victory."

"I wouldn’t have expected anything less, Your Dominion," Reynold said as the others moved to carry Erling away. "Since we’ve already lost once, I’ll go next. No disrespect to Commander Aspakos, but..."

"It’s my father’s life," Reynold said. "I can’t allow anyone else to fight for it before I do."

"Very well, Lord Reynold," Ashlynn said. "Prepare yourself. The challenge you face won’t be any less dangerous than the one Erling faced," she warned. "And Taghai doesn’t seem like the sort to propose marriage after a ’friendly’ contest. He’s come for your life and for your father’s if he can claim both."

"I know what he wants," Reynold said, looking back toward the Imperial Box where Taghai watched from above. "But I intend to disappoint him."